It is in development and has been for years. There have been numerous teams working on it and it has been scrapped and started from scratch at least once. It'll come out eventually, but the majority of people who played the rest of the series will have moved on. So it'll pretty much have to be able to be played from scratch by a new audience for it.

\I'm hoping for it to be included with every Steam Box purchase, but that's not likely to happen.

Actually the reverse. Valve have never said Half-Life 3 is in development, they haven't released stills of the game or video segments of gameplay or even desktop wallpaper with the logo on. Which is actually quite unlike DNF which was in development right after Duke 3D was released and 3D Realms did all of those things.

This doesn't however mean that the fanbase will be any kinder to HL3 than DNF (which as a $5 game is actually quite good) as even if it comes with free blowjobs people will be enraged that they felt gums or it didn't have enough suction and naturally the free money printing machine tucked inside the box will not print the correct denomination of notes.

Although I for one will only believe the game is in development when I can buy it (not pre-purchase but buy & download) from Steam.

I expect that since Portal 2 had so many references to the Half-Life universe, and the last Half-Life items had references to Portal, we'll see another of each. I'm not a big believer in franchises as that's merely the starting point of a conversation. The sub-90 IQs in marketing latch on to franchises like rabbit foot lucky charms but what really matters is a good product.

gaslight:I expect that since Portal 2 had so many references to the Half-Life universe, and the last Half-Life items had references to Portal, we'll see another of each. I'm not a big believer in franchises as that's merely the starting point of a conversation. The sub-90 IQs in marketing latch on to franchises like rabbit foot lucky charms but what really matters is a good product.

Half Life and Portal take place in the same universe. If I remember correctly, the end of episode 2 mentions the Aperture Science research ship, the Borealis, which can also be seen in Portal 2. I would assume the story of Half Life 3 would further flesh out the connection.

Half Life and Portal take place in the same universe. If I remember correctly, the end of episode 2 mentions the Aperture Science research ship, the Borealis, which can also be seen in Portal 2. I would assume the story of Half Life 3 would further flesh out the connection.

Didn't the original Portal have references to Black Mesa and the rest of the HL universe? Aside from Still Alive, that is.

akula:Yeah. At this point, although I'd have loved to get the rest of the story, why even bother now? It's been how long since Episode 2? Going on 7 years (seems longer)?

It's probably time to let it go.

Eh, it was seven years between Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, eight years between Super Metroid and Metroid Prime, 9 years between Max Payne 2 and 3. It's been a long time and we want it, but time doesn't mean we need to let go; just temper our expectations.

I feel bad for Valve, in a way. They have nothing to do with the hype of it.

I think we are looking at a case of perfection being the enemy of the very good. Valve doesn't want to release a good game. They want a revolutionary game, something that will top the gravity gun and portal gun. The fact that most of their fan base will be drooling in a nursing home by the time it comes out doesn't seem to bother them.

GavinTheAlmighty:akula: Yeah. At this point, although I'd have loved to get the rest of the story, why even bother now? It's been how long since Episode 2? Going on 7 years (seems longer)?

It's probably time to let it go.

Eh, it was seven years between Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, eight years between Super Metroid and Metroid Prime, 9 years between Max Payne 2 and 3. It's been a long time and we want it, but time doesn't mean we need to let go; just temper our expectations.

I feel bad for Valve, in a way. They have nothing to do with the hype of it.

Sure they do. They are being specifically ambiguous. If they wanted to stop the hype they easily could release a statement. But they don't. They want the hype. It's free long term advertising.

Copperbelly watersnake:I think we are looking at a case of perfection being the enemy of the very good. Valve doesn't want to release a good game. They want a revolutionary game, something that will top the gravity gun and portal gun. The fact that most of their fan base will be drooling in a nursing home by the time it comes out doesn't seem to bother them.

A gravity portal gun? You can open a portal and suck things through it. I don't know what else you can do. There's not much out there sci-fi wise that could be used in a FPS beyond ZPE and teleporting.

MadMattressMack:Copperbelly watersnake: I think we are looking at a case of perfection being the enemy of the very good. Valve doesn't want to release a good game. They want a revolutionary game, something that will top the gravity gun and portal gun. The fact that most of their fan base will be drooling in a nursing home by the time it comes out doesn't seem to bother them.

A gravity portal gun? You can open a portal and suck things through it. I don't know what else you can do. There's not much out there sci-fi wise that could be used in a FPS beyond ZPE and teleporting.

I'd think the next logical step would be a portal gun that can either fire 4 portals or fire portals through portals, also known as the Xibit Gun.

GavinTheAlmighty:akula: Yeah. At this point, although I'd have loved to get the rest of the story, why even bother now? It's been how long since Episode 2? Going on 7 years (seems longer)?

It's probably time to let it go.

Eh, it was seven years between Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, eight years between Super Metroid and Metroid Prime, 9 years between Max Payne 2 and 3. It's been a long time and we want it, but time doesn't mean we need to let go; just temper our expectations.

I feel bad for Valve, in a way. They have nothing to do with the hype of it.

MadMattressMack:\I'm hoping for it to be included with every Steam Box purchase, but that's not likely to happen.

There was an interview with Gabe Newell a few months back where he discusses the Steam Box (which should be called Steam Engines FYI) and why they haven't put out HL3. In short, he says they put HL3 (and I assume L4D3) on the back burner in order to focus on the upcoming console.

That being said releasing HL3 as a Steam exclusive would probably prompt a lot of Steam Box sales. Up to this point Valve has always tried to release cross-platform, but they may need a hook to get console gamers to buy into another platform. They've indicated a late 2014 release date for the Steam Box, so the timing is right for HL3 screen shots to come out now.

That being said, I won't believe any HL3 rumors it until I see a pre-sale notice on Steam.

mooseyfate:MadMattressMack: Copperbelly watersnake: I think we are looking at a case of perfection being the enemy of the very good. Valve doesn't want to release a good game. They want a revolutionary game, something that will top the gravity gun and portal gun. The fact that most of their fan base will be drooling in a nursing home by the time it comes out doesn't seem to bother them.

A gravity portal gun? You can open a portal and suck things through it. I don't know what else you can do. There's not much out there sci-fi wise that could be used in a FPS beyond ZPE and teleporting.

I'd think the next logical step would be a portal gun that can either fire 4 portals or fire portals through portals, also known as the Xibit Gun.

Time travel portals through the same areas at different times, ala Zork III.

I played through HL2, the 2 episodes and Lost Coast, even though I had to save every five minutes due to random crashes that would occasionally even BSOD my Vista machine. Most of the time it just dropped me right back into the steam library page, though. Still, It probably crashed on me in the high hundreds of times. And I still played it all the way through the entire series HL2 series.

I just hope to God that when/if HL3 comes out, I can play it without wanting to punch something because I forgot to save at a crucial point and I have to redo a boss type fight or something and it kicks me out of the game, AGAIN.

MadMattressMack:GavinTheAlmighty: akula: Yeah. At this point, although I'd have loved to get the rest of the story, why even bother now? It's been how long since Episode 2? Going on 7 years (seems longer)?

It's probably time to let it go.

Eh, it was seven years between Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, eight years between Super Metroid and Metroid Prime, 9 years between Max Payne 2 and 3. It's been a long time and we want it, but time doesn't mean we need to let go; just temper our expectations.

I feel bad for Valve, in a way. They have nothing to do with the hype of it.

Sure they do. They are being specifically ambiguous. If they wanted to stop the hype they easily could release a statement. But they don't. They want the hype. It's free long term advertising.

A company is supposed to release a statement saying they AREN'T doing something every time some website decides they discovered a big scoop? They're not going to bother, even if they gain nothing from the ambiguity. Why even bother?

somemoron:I had to save every five minutes due to random crashes that would occasionally even BSOD my Vista machine.

I think I found yer problem. I got a loaner from Fry's when my laptop went kaput. One of the first generation of Vista machines. I was excited to try it out.

Then it BSOD'ed 25 minutes into setting it up. Hadn't even had enough time to actually play with anything. Then it BSOD'ed on installing Steam. Then it BSOD'ed on running Steam. After I turned that POS back in I swore I would never have another computer that had that OS.